An innovative new collaboration is set to revolutionise the accessibility of everyday healthcare for people who are blind or have low-vision, according to experts.
More than two million people are living with sight loss in the UK, with 8.5 million having very poor literacy skills and an independent study of visually impaired people revealing that 93% of respondents don’t feel health products are accessible enough.
And almost one in five have taken the wrong dosage as they couldn’t read the packaging effectively.
But on World Sight Day 2022, a game-changing new partnership looks set to ensure that everyone who is blind and partially sighted has significantly enhanced access to health products.
Haleon, a global leader in consumer health, and Microsoft Corp. are expanding functionality in the Microsoft Seeing AI app to provide more detailed labelling information for consumers for over 1500 Haleon products across the UK and US.
Seeing AI is a free mobile app, for the visually impaired community, designed to narrate the world around them.
Saqib Shaikh, Engineering Manager at Microsoft, said: “I'm really excited to see the launch of this enhanced product recognition functionality, developed in collaboration with Haleon.
“Seeing AI's intelligent barcode scanner plays audio cues to help you find the barcode, and now the information displayed for Haleon products is coming straight from the manufacturer, providing richer information including usage instructions and ingredients. This can be invaluable for someone who cannot read the label, leading to greater independence.”
With the launch of Haleon’s ‘Always Read the Label,’ campaign for World Sight Day, people who are blind and those with low vision or low literacy are able to read labels through Seeing AI by scanning the barcode of Haleon products to hear important information such as name, ingredients, and usage instructions.
Through the enhanced functionality that Seeing AI offers, Haleon will help empower people to care for their own health independently by listening to the label information that’s narrated through the Seeing AI application.
Haleon, driven by its purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity, believes that health products should be accessible. The collaboration is the first step in driving health inclusivity for this community.
The Seeing AI app was developed by a team of Microsoft engineers spearheaded by project lead and engineering manager Saqib Shaikh, who lost his sight at the age of seven, and was driven to develop the app by his passion for using technology to improve people’s lives.
Tamara Rogers, Chief Marketing Officer at Haleon said, “Helping people access vital information on our products is one of our first initiatives as we do our part to make everyday consumer health more inclusive. We hope Microsoft’s Seeing AI capability to narrate labels across Haleon’s products brings greater independence to our consumers. At Haleon, we have set ourselves the goal of helping 50 million people to be more included in opportunities for better everyday health by 2025, by tackling three big barriers that we know put everyday health out of reach for too many of the world’s citizens; Health Literacy, Healthcare Accessibility & Bias and Prejudice.”
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